Connections
This is where all our API connections are going.
Webhooks
This is like an api that you create for one event, it has been implemented to Ventrata.
So say you create a webhook on a flight departure. The airline will update information on that flight departure and you get a notification of changes. But it can also be another event like price, like getting SMS alerts for these changes, but it is done via this API interface and you can request it automatical.
If you want to create webhook, use + New Webhook button and set:
Connection - you need to choose a valid one from Connections section
Event - when it's triggered (Booking Update/ Availability update)
Url - where webhook sends info to
Basically a webhook is a sort of an API. What it does is it sends information as soon as it gets it. And the URL you add is where there is a listener. So webhook sends info URL listens to updates. What happens later is that the listener pushes the info to a third party like an SMS. In this case the webhooks that we have are for booking/creation/update/cancellation.
It's designed mostly to have other services pull info, say something like Microsoft PowerBI which has an external DataBase. Instead of creating custom connections each time we just send the information you find important (like all sales made from this checkout).
This is what we want to use for all the Tax integrations in the EU, they ingest the data we send and output it in a government defined form.
Mappings
This is to map products with OTAs through City Connect in Ventrata
In this subsection you can see all City Connect resellers that have products pointing to that account.
Simply press the reseller you want and you will see a table with five columns:
Reseller Product
Reseller Option
Product
Option
Tour
After clicking on a certain Reseller Product in the list a new window will open. Here you can update the mapping for this product by clicking the button Update Mapping.
This action then updates the mapping in the OTA’s extranet.
If any line in the table is red it means that the mapping is not complete and bookings will fail.
You must have a tour set at the mapping level for Viator and Expedia. It’s not necessary for Get Your Guide (GYG).
After selecting GYG or Viator you will be shown the Connect Account button.
To connect, use your admin email / password that you need to login to the reseller’s extranet. That allows automatic building of the reseller’s product list.
When you press that button, you get a form to add your username and password for that reseller and that will automatically create a connection and get all the products you have on that account, so you can map it. With that button you give your credentials to the extranet and the system uses that to create the connection and scrape the extranet to create the mappings for the products.
When you connect through API, this is good for OTAs and suppliers because:
OTAs sell live availability, ie, no overbooking
Their clients can redeem on attraction instead of the suppliers having to collect vouchers and then emitting the ticket
When the mapping comes up, the bookings that come in are assigned to:
The correct product (so redemption is automatic)
The correct reseller (to make billing easier)
After connecting, there are two buttons. The Disconnect button disconnects the account and The Sync button re-downloads any changes in the product list.